The Hindu : Business : Nortel to focus on SME sector

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 27, 2006

Business

Business

Nortel to focus on SME sector

Staff Reporter

SMEs spending more on infotech solutions

KOCHI: Nortel India will expand its reach to small and medium enterprise (SME) companies. The company's managing director, Ashoka Valia, said the decision was a strategic move to capture market share in the growing SME market in India.

The company has made inroads into the Indian market and has seen tremendous growth in the enterprise business. It has launched a new product line and channel strategy targeting SMEs. Nortel is committed to making business simple and has been looking towards Asia Pacific to identify new areas and India is an important market. Indian SMEs are now turning to information and communications technology to simplify and enhance their business. IT was a luxury for SMEs earlier, he said. The SMEs in India are expected to spend $7.7 billion in 2006 to beef up their infotech infrastructure and solutions, up by 26 per cent from last year. The company's next generation technologies support multimedia and business critical applications, and simplify networks, he said. The company is focussing on convergence of technologies that are competitive and easy-to-use. It is exploring the potential in tier-II cities where the IT penetration is low.

Nortel's business units are aligned into carrier and enterprise networks. The carrier customers include Reliance Infocomm, BSNL, Gas Authority of India Limited, Eastern Railway and Bharti. Nortel's enterprise solutions are sold and supported by a network of distributors and resellers as part of the channel partner programme. Connectivity adds value to the business, said Rick Seeto, vice-president, Enterprise Networks Asia Pacific. This is the time for a big push as the market has broadband availability, he said.

The senior executives of the company had arrived in Kochi to participate in an annual partners' forum.

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